For several years the trend in domestic refrigerator cabinets has been to increase the size and in particular the width of the food compartments and doors in top or bottom mount refrigerators.
Typically, the refrigerator door is constructed from an outer door panel of sheet steel material having rearwardly extending side walls. The door has an inner liner wall of plastic material attached to the door panel. Foam insulation is injected in the space between the outer panel and the inner liner. The foam expands and cures to thermally insulate and rigidize the door.
In order to conserve costs, the amount of steel used in the manufacture of these doors is optimized. The practice is to use a relatively thin sheet of steel for the outer panel. Often this sheet is in the order of 0.017 inches thick. Consequently, in order for the refrigerator door to maintain it's integrity and support articles or items stored on door mounted shelves, the most common approach to reinforce the door has been to use cross braces located within the door cavity between the inner liner and the outer door panel. The metal cross braces extend from the corners of the refrigerator outer panel in an X configuration to reinforce the refrigerator door.
To further strengthen the door outer skin, the corners of the door formed when the skin is rolled back onto itself to provide a supporting peripheral flange for the door liner, have been welded. However, this welded corner results in the corner hinge bearing the door load and transferring loading stresses across the outer door skin. Further, the welding of the door outer skin at the corners does not permit the use of a pre-painted door outer skin for door manufacture since the skin paint at the corners is effected by the weld. Also, the welding of the corners fixes the corner shape so that minor changes in door construction must be accounted for during door manufacture. Clearly, there is a need for a refrigerator door corner construction that eliminates the problems associated with welding the outer skin door corners, reduces the load transfer from the door onto the relatively thin steel outer skin wall of the refrigerator door and does not have an unpleasant finish.